Coping with stress

Attol

I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. My parents decided to move to Birmingham just after I was finished transition year. I really will never forgive them for that. I didn't think of my future at all because I was 16 and it seemed so far away. We'd never really talked about it at school and none of my friends had seriously thought about it either. I chose my subjects for my A Levels totally by interest, not by how useful they would be. I knew I wanted to return to Ireland for uni but I didn't realise that the matriculation requirements would be so hard to do in the English system. I've got to work my ass off to get back to Dublin next year. Over here it is normal to take 4 AS levels(subjects for the 1st year) then to drop one of these and carry the other 3 over to A2(2nd year). University requirements usually go by these 3 grades.

What I need to go to UCD:
6 subjects in all.
Maths
English
Another language

My subjects are:

GCSE Maths
GCSE Science
AS Spanish
A2 Computing
A2 English lang &l lit
A2 Psychology
A2 General Studies(not accepted as a real subject in Ireland)

I know that seems really easy to everyone who did the leaving cert and did 6+ subjects but this is totally different. It's all really long essays and coursework and crap. I had to take up GCSE maths and science this year which I thought would be no bother as I figured they'd be similar to the Junior Cert syllabus. They are but there are still new things for me to learn and on top of 4 A2s(my college forces us to take general studies which doesn't count in Ireland so I have to do a 4th A2 subject) I now have 2 extra subjects taking up my time. I have to do maths from 6pm-9pm every Monday. Counting up the exams and pieces of coursework I'll need to do this year I realised how much work this will be. I have to resit 6 exams from last year to boost my grades plus 24 new exams and pieces of coursework. I don't know how I'm going to manage it. I don't have the time and ability.

I just feel so stressed. I start a new job tomorrow which I'm looking forward to but I'm going to have no time at all. I need the money for saving up for getting back to Dublin so working is definitely something I need to do. Visits to Dublin tend to destress me but I'm just feeling a little frazzled and shocked by the amount of things I need to do and I don't know how to deal with it. I don't have any friends I'd hang out with outside of college(a 6th form college where you can do the last 2 years of school) so I don't have people here to help me. I have a great friend back in Dublin but I'm sure he's sick of hearing me whine and stress about all this and talking on MSN just isn't the same as a hug and real chat.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I could just calm myself down about it I'd really appreciate it. Just I noticed how bad it was when I went to bed and was feeling totally overwhelmed. I have 2 weeks of holiday ahead of me including 1 week in Dublin yet I can't look forward to it when I'm dreading going back and doing exams in January and June. It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many of them.

WhiteWashMan

you semed to be most stressed out about your schooling.

why do you feel the great need to move back to dublin? is it because you feel thats where your friends are and where you grew up, or do you think you can get back to a life that you used to enjoy?

im not going to do the whole ireland vs abroad thing, because i dont think its helpful, but what i would say is that perhpas you need to look at the pros and cons of where you are and what you want.

university is the same where ever you go. its a lot of fun.
ive been to enough universities in england to know that they have fantastic facilities and lots of beer drinking people.

perhaps you need to focus on what you are doing now, instead of something that i feel may just be good memories?